By the time the naval soldiers had all regained their sight, the battle was already over.
Five hundred men, every one of them with a red mark around their neck.
“You lot are cheating!”
“Have the guts to do it again!”
“If it were a real fight to the death, you would definitely lose!”
The naval soldiers glared furiously at the escort guards.
Five hundred men had been utterly wiped out by fifty, they all felt as though they had been slapped across the face.
“If it were a real fight, you would die even faster!”
Da Zhuang was not about to humour them. He pulled out a hand grenade, lit it, and tossed it to one side.
Boom!
Flames shot into the air!
The violent explosion was deafening!
The shockwave from the blast caused the naval soldiers’ clothes to flap wildly.
“If it were a real fight, I would use this!”
Da Zhuang asked with a sideways glance, “Well, do you want to try it?”
The naval soldiers immediately fell silent.
Good heavens, if the escort guards had started with this thing, would any of them have survived?
Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even General Zheng Chiyuan was stunned speechless by the power of the hand grenade.
“Gen… General Jin, what on earth is this?”
Zheng Chiyuan asked excitedly.
“This is a new weapon I have made, called a hand grenade.”
Jin Feng smiled and said, “The one earlier that blinded everyone is called a flash grenade.”
“Hand grenade… flash grenade…”
Zheng Chiyuan somewhat regretted setting the terms so early.
If he had known Jin Feng had this kind of weapon, he would have included it in the wager.
Jin Feng saw Zheng Chiyuan’s expression and guessed what he was thinking. Smiling, he said, “If General Zheng wants some, I can give a few crates to the general.”
Hand grenades and flash grenades had been used multiple times on the Xichuan battlefield, so there was no longer any need to keep them secret.
These things were not expensive, giving away a few crates was no big deal.
Zheng Chiyuan’s eyes lit up at that. “Could you give a few more crates? I will pay for them!”
“It’s not that I don’t want to give them, but hand grenades are very complicated to make and unstable. They can explode if mishandled, and we did not bring many.”
Jin Feng smiled and shook his head.
Scarcity increases value. Although the production cost of hand grenades and flash grenades was not high, only Jin Feng knew how to make them, so naturally he wanted to sell them at a good price.
Since Jin Feng had put it that way, Zheng Chiyuan could not say more.
He cupped his fists towards Jin Feng in salute. “Many thanks, General Jin. I will not stand on ceremony then.”
“Then about suppressing the bandits…”
“General Jin, rest assured. I, Zheng, am a man of my word. Since I lost, I will do exactly as you said and do my utmost to help you eliminate the water bandits on Mangdang River.”
Zheng Chiyuan thumped his chest in guarantee.
“That really is too kind of General Zheng!”
Today’s objective had been achieved, and the weight finally lifted from Jin Feng’s heart.
“General Jin, since we have spoken openly, I will not hide it from you. I know Crab Pincer Island. Three sides are sheer cliffs, and it can only be entered from the side with water.”
Zheng Chiyuan said, “I can send troops to suppress the bandits, but I cannot guarantee we can save your people, because…”
He stopped there.
But Jin Feng understood his meaning and continued for him. “Because while we are attacking the water bandits, they will have plenty of time to kill my people, correct?”
“There is that possibility.” Zheng Chiyuan nodded.
“General Zheng, do not worry. You only need to surround the water bandits and prevent them from escaping.” Jin Feng said confidently, “We will handle rescuing the people.”
“Does General Jin have a clever plan?” Zheng Chiyuan asked curiously.
He truly could not think how, in this situation, Jin Feng could rescue anyone.
Unless the escort guards could fly and reach Crab Pincer Island that way.
“General Zheng will find out when the time comes.” Jin Feng kept it mysterious.
Seeing that Jin Feng did not wish to say more, Zheng Chiyuan did not press further. Instead he asked, “Then when does General Jin plan to move?”
“The sooner the better,” Jin Feng said, turning to look west. “To be honest, there is an urgent matter in Xichuan, and I must return as quickly as possible.”
“Could it be that the Tubo people have attacked again?” Zheng Chiyuan asked in alarm.
As a soldier, he naturally kept constant watch on border affairs.
After the Xichuan war ended, many people worried that the Tubo would seek revenge.
“It’s not the Tubo people, it’s a cold disaster!”
Jin Feng briefly explained the disaster in the Sichuan-Shu region and how the Ninth Princess had been recalled to the capital.
Zheng Chiyuan was a relatively pure soldier. Although he did not pay much attention to court politics, after hearing Jin Feng, he could not help sighing along with him.
At the same time, he understood why Jin Feng was so anxious to suppress the bandits.
“General Jin, I did not know earlier that you had such an important reason to return. I am sorry!”
Zheng Chiyuan saluted Jin Feng, saying with some shame, “If you had told me about this sooner, I definitely would not have mentioned the heavy crossbows and catapults.”
“It’s fine. Soldiers all love weapons. Actually, I also wanted to get a few warships from the general.” Jin Feng said with a smile.
If Zheng Chiyuan had accepted Shui Yu’s help again, Jin Feng would have looked down on him.
But Zheng Chiyuan had refused without hesitation, only asking for heavy crossbows and catapults to equip his fleet.
This made Jin Feng view him in a new light.
“Warships are allocated by the court. Otherwise I would have traded two for weapons with you.”
Zheng Chiyuan said somewhat embarrassedly.
“I was only joking. General Zheng need not take it seriously.”
Jin Feng patted Zheng Chiyuan on the shoulder.
With this interlude, Zheng Chiyuan indeed no longer mentioned heavy crossbows and catapults afterwards, instead asking Jin Feng about details of the operation.
Jin Feng stayed in the naval camp until midnight before leaving.
However, Han Feng and Da Zhuang remained behind.
They needed to cooperate with the naval soldiers to remove some of the heavy crossbows from the merchant fleet’s cargo ships and install them on the naval warships.
In fact, the navy was also equipped with heavy crossbows, but they were older models. Both loading speed and range were completely incomparable to Jin Feng’s heavy crossbows.
Back at the camp, as soon as Jin Feng entered the tent, he saw Tang Xiaobei dozing by the brazier.
A clay pot was placed on the brazier.
When Jin Feng lifted the tent flap, cold wind rushed in with him.
Tang Xiaobei startled awake. “Ah, husband, you are finally back!”
As she spoke, she stood up, touched Jin Feng’s hand, found it ice-cold, and quickly helped him remove his cloak. Then she took a new one from beside the brazier and draped it over him.
This cloak had been warming by the brazier for half the night and was toasty warm.
Jin Feng had ridden through the cold wind for so long that he was frozen through. Putting on the warm cloak, he narrowed his eyes in comfort.
“It really is best to have my wife by my side!”
Jin Feng pulled open the cloak and wrapped Tang Xiaobei inside with him.
“Stop messing about. Let me check if the meat porridge is still hot.”
Tang Xiaobei pinched Jin Feng once, then ran to the brazier to look at the clay pot.
After finishing their late-night meal, it was already deep into the night.
Tang Xiaobei prepared to help Jin Feng change for bed, but he stopped her.
“I still have things to do.”
“What could you possibly have to do in the middle of the night?” Tang Xiaobei pouted. “Do you have someone else? Do I know her?”
“What are you thinking about all day?” Jin Feng flicked her forehead. “It’s proper business!”
“What proper business?” Tang Xiaobei asked curiously.
